Stuck in sand, smugglers bail on 1,000 pounds of pot

Deputies from the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office seized around 1,000 pounds of marijuana — a haul likely worth well over $1 million — from an abandoned SUV on a beach south of Half Moon Bay Monday, officials said.

The vehicle, a white Chevy SUV, was discovered stuck in the sand on Pescadero State Beach around 8:30 a.m. along with a 30-foot panga-style boat thought to be the original means of transportation for the pot, said Department of Homeland Security spokesman Andrew Munoz.

“This type of thing is becoming more common in Northern California as the Coast Guard and Homeland Security step up patrols farther south,” Munoz said. “It’s likely that they were either doing a long haul from Mexico or they were coming from a mother ship farther off the coast.”